Sports

I know. I know. The state of football is not that great in Mauritius. And, to be frank, I don’t even know the names of the teams in the 1st division.

I’m writing this blog entry because I got a mail from someone called Piotr Chmielewski (he is from Poland) who writes about football on a website called Afryka. He is currently writing about Mauritian football and would like to have the following information:

• What is the best Mauritian team?
• Which team has the largest number of supporters?
• Who are the stars of Mauritian football?
• Who is the biggest star?
• What is the current Mauritian national team?
• Who are the national team players playing abroad?
• Who are those playing locally?
• What do you think of our chance to qualify for the 2010 African Cup of Nations?
• Can Mauritius beat Cameroon?
• Can Mauritius beat Cape Verde?
• Can Mauritius beat Tanzania?
• Anything else interesting about Mauritian football.

Please feel free to comment. I will consolidate the information I get and send it to Piotr.

My personal opinion

I don’t know anything about current teams and players. The biggest star might (still) be Jean-Sébastien Bax. I think we have a chance to qualify for the second round of the ACN 2010 qualifications as one of the second best. We will get beaten by Cameroon (naturally) and beat both Cape Verde and Tanzania at home. We will also be beaten by Cameroon away and we will draw with both Cape Verde and Tanzania on their home soils.

As for the “anything else” part, my feeling is that it’s a pity that football is in such a bad shape here. Football is (by far) the largest religion on the planet and I find it sad that most of us know more about Barnsley than the Mauritian National Team…

About the photo above

May I introduce to the world the next Liverpool striker, my son Kyan :-)

Two days ago, Vikash Dhorasoo announced that he was retiring from football.

He started playing at Le Havre AC, then spent a few years at Olympique Lyonnais (where he won two French championship medals) and even played for Milan AC (he was on the bench during that most dramatic Champions League final ever…). He was a member of the French national team and played during the 2006 World Cup.

Incidentally, he arrived at Lyon when Christina and I were studying there. We went to watch his first match ever for the club against Atletico Madrid and he was excellent. We even went to the same cinema once except that he was waiting in another queue and we did not have the courage to go and talk to him… Talking of cinema, Vikash Dhorasoo will also always be known as the football player who directed a film.

He played for the Mauritian team once during an exhibition match against Marseille and he was the best player by far.

He is without doubt the best footballer born of Mauritian parents ever. He played with Zinedine Zidane and Paolo Maldini against the likes of Steven Gerrard and Djibril Cissé. I wonder if we’ll ever have another as successful footballer as Vikash given the state of football in Mauritius…

I wish him good luck for the future.

An hilarious quote I got from Telegraph.co.uk:

“Can you imagine Italy hiring an Englishman to run their national team? Nor can I. But at least under Fabio I’m sure you will go farther in the World Cup than for ages. So congratulations, England – you’re the new Jamaica.”

Priceless.

The Premiership is great to watch. Fantastic speed. Great tackles. But I’ll watch the El Clássico today to witness some real football.